The Art of Multi-Site

Managing those different moving parts

Every multi-site portfolio is different. From the corporate structure itself to the way in which the customer manages their in house processes. But there are some key areas that a TPI needs to cover to ensure that the portfolio can be managed pro-actively and that the customer is happy. We have listed our 5 main points for consideration in the multi-site world:

Corporate Structure

How is the customer portfolio set up?

Is there a Parent Company followed by a number of different entities?

If so, who is responsible for signing off the supply contracts?

Is this done at entity level or Parent Company level?

Is it a mixture of the two?

Contract End Dates

A multi-site portfolio is rarely aligned 100% across the portfolio. What is the main common end date?

Are you going to align end dates for new sites through your main supplier for the portfolio or the existing supplier for the new site?

Do you have a main signatory who can sign off these contracts or is this done at site level? If at site level, do you have the necessary contacts to arrange sign off with?

Portfolio Management

On average, how many sites are being added to/removed from the portfolio through Change of Tenancies (COTs)?

Do you have a way of tracking these COTs with suppliers to ensure the sites are added/removed from the portfolio in a timely manner?

Do you have a process of monitoring registrations, not just for the main procurement piece, but for each new meter added to the portfolio?

Do you have a process in place to request information from suppliers for new meters added to the portfolio? These can only be added once you have all of the consumption and contract information.

Internal Admin Processes

Who in your team is responsible for managing the procurement process for the main portfolio?

Who is responsible for managing COTs?

Who is responsible for communicating changes to the portfolio to the Finance team so that commission reports can be updated with suppliers?

Who is responsible for making sure that portfolio details are maintained and updated on your internal system/spreadsheets?

Reporting

Is it easy for you to generate COT/Registration/Portfolio reports that can instantly be sent to your customer?

How about tracking queries with suppliers? Do you have reports that can be shared with the supplier to ensure query resolution?

Can you easily update commission forecasts to show the on-going change to the portfolio size.

Do you have easy visibility of queries assigned to each internal team member managing the portfolio? What queries are outstanding?

Some might look at the above and say that this is over-kill. But it really isn’t. If the intention is to give your customer and your suppliers confidence that a multi-site portfolio is going to be managed effectively and pro-actively, then the above 5 areas need careful planning and consideration to ensure that processes are as robust as possible.

It’s very easy for things to go wrong when managing a multi-site portfolio. You may miss an objection or forget to terminate for some reason. Sometimes this is unavoidable and isn’t the fault of the TPI. But there are many occasions where something is missed and the reason for this is poor process management.

There is an art to managing multi-site customers. You may approach a pitch and believe that your biggest opportunity to win the business is to reinforce to the customer just how much money you can save them. This is important of course. But the person you are pitching to wants piece of mind that your business is well set up to deal with the ever changing aspects of their portfolio. If you win the business and manage it well, they will never leave you.

UtilityClick’s CRM and Procurement system is the only offering in the marketplace that incorporates all of the necessary tools to effectively manage multi-site portfolios. Feel free to give us a call if you want to discuss multi-site portfolio management in more detail.

About the author

Andrew Hunter

Andy holds a successful background in major energy consulting firms, brokering major deals and managing portfolios for SME and corporate clients. Andy’s technical intuition and vision kick-started the development of the UtilityClick platform. Andy has ultimate responsibility for UtilityClick’s product development and is playing a pivotal role in the advancement of technology in the B2B energy industry.